The goal of the workshop is to promote interoperability of biomedical image and imaging ontologies through the application of principles of sound ontology construction and through the coordination of current ontology development efforts in the imaging domain. One subsidiary goal is to ensure compatibility of image ontologies with ontologies of those biomedical entities which images represent. The workshop will include hands-on experiments directed towards building a biomedical image ontology on the basis of sample ontologies submitted by participants in advance.

- the use of common relations (along the lines advanced in the OBO Relation Ontology), including relations among images, features, interpretations, and the underlying reality

- use of ontologies in reasoning

- building an ontology of imaging tools and data, including issues related to the classification of imaging algorithms and to the potential uses of a tools ontology in supporting interoperability of bioinformatics software (in conjunction with the Software and Data Integration Working Group of the NIH Roadmap National Centers for Biomedical Computing).

The workshop is designed to be of value to all those involved in biocomputing in the imaging domain, including representatives of those NCBCs who use or develop imaging technologies.

This workshop was funded by the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) through the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research, Grant 1 U 54 HG004028. Information on the National Centers for Biomedical Computing can be found at http://nihroadmap.nih.gov/bioinformatics. Additional support has been provided by GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Language & Computing (L&C) and Agfa.